The Daniel Craig era of James Bond ended in shocking and spectacular fashion with No Time to Die, which laughed in the face of the pandemic to earn $774 million from theaters, while also drawing a definitive line under the current iteration of cinema’s most famous secret agent.
By becoming the first actor to be killed off at the end of his run, the next reboot for 007 is obligated to rebuild from the ground up all over again, right down to the regular cast of supporting characters. After all, it would break the logic were Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Lashana Lynch, Rory Kinnear, and the gang to show up and assist another Bond, when the last time we saw them they were collectively toasting to his life and death.
We’d previously heard that the announcement would be made before the end of 2022, but longtime producer and steward Barbara Broccoli has hinted to Variety that Eon are nowhere close to finalizing the preferred candidate to slip into the tux.
“Its going to take some time. It’s a big decision. It’s not just casting a role. It’s about a whole rethink about where we’re going.”
With Amazon now the owners of MGM, the next James Bond blockbuster could be the most pivotal one yet for a number of reasons. Craig’s tenure was the first time multiple installments had been directly tied together as part of a single overarching storyline that took 15 years to complete, while there’s obviously the big question about the style and tone.
Does it stay gritty? Lighten things up? Aim for the middle ground? And who writes the script? Who directs? At this stage, we simply don’t know.
